Thus Edwards, absolutist in metaphysics, ever comes back in his theology to 'the concep tion of God as sovereign Power, Wisdom and Love, whose "decrees,* determining that the world-plan shall be realized, are the foundation of an all-inclusive optimism. Had he devel oped his thought as a pure philosopher, his sys tem would doubtless have assumed a very dif ferent character in details and in some of its main conclusions. As it was, he blended his philosophy with his theology and his theology with his philosophy and both with a conception and interpretation of Scripture that modern criticism regards as untenable. And although the sharp antitheses in which his system abounds are all reconciled in his thought of God's gbod ness and eternal decrees, as he lacked the medi ating conceptions with which some more mod ern doctrines have made us familiar, this recon ciliation is apt to appear to us as one of faith rather than of reason. These defects, hoW ever, will not blind the sympathetic student of opinion to the essential strength and largeness of his general scheme of thought. His histori cal influence extended mainly in two directions: On the one hand, the speculative and logical power with which he worked cut his funds-' mental conception made him the chief of a school of theologians in New England—Hop kins, Emmons, the younger Edwards, Dwight, etc.— who, with less logical acumen and less
speculative ability, sought to carry out his prin ciples and particularly so to formulate the Cal vinistic system as to make it appear better ac cordant with popular notions of the goodness of God and human responsibility. On the other hand, by his doctrine of "spiritual light° and by the emphasis he put on conversion and the religious affections, he powerfully furthered the movement which, laying special stress on reli gious experience, tends to discard dogmatic as sumptions altogether and to seek the solution of the religious problem in the consciousness of this experience itself. See FREEDOM OF THE Bibliography.— The best editions of Ed wards are the Worcester (8 vols. 1809, re printed with additions, 4 vols., New York 1858); Dwight, with a memoir (10 vols., 1829 30). Consult also Gardiner, H. N., 'Selected Sermons of Jonathan Edwards' (New York 1904). E. C. Smyth has edited fragments from Edwards from the manuscripts. The best biographies are contained in Dwight's 'Memoir' and in A. V. G. Allen's 'Jonathan Edwards' (Boston 1889).